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Brexit

Westminster: Brexit is the hard right's weapon of mass distraction

999 replies

BigChocFrenzy · 07/03/2017 07:21

The fervour and divisions over Brexit have suspended normal party politics.

The staggering incompetence & unsuitability of Corbyn as a leader, together with the resulting impotence of Labour has removed the normal checks & balances in UK politics.
There is a vaccum where the Official Opposition should be, so Theresa May is under pressure only from her right.

I fear Thereas May and the Tory rightwing are taking advantage of Brexit to complete the destruction of the post-WW2 social contract and the welfare state.

Meanwhile, the constraints of civilised discourse have been loosened and those with racist or social Darwinist views now feel free to spout their poison openly.

Putin is pouring petrol on all the fires and Arron Banks is lurking < sinister emoticons required >

Zoe Williams:
"Behind a smokescreen of bogus patriotism, ideologically driven cuts to the NHS and all our public services are unpicking the bonds of nationhood"

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/05/brexit-theresa-may-falklands-war-nhs-cuts

"We should be marching against the crisis in adult social care, the closure of care homes, the systematic exploitation of carers, the £4.6bn cut from social care budgets this decade.
We should be .... asking:

“What exactly is the plan, if we’ve decided we can no longer afford to care for the elderly and the disabled?
What do we do with them instead?”

"We should be marching against cuts in education funding"

"Every morning we wake up to someone on the radio explaining, despairingly, that you can’t fix the hospital bed crisis until social care is fixed, and you can’t fix that until council tax brings in more, and it can’t bring in more because wages are too low."

"But when everything breaks at the same time, that is not a coincidence: it is a plan.

As surely as Margaret Thatcher had an economic plan on employment, rights, industry and wages,
this century’s Conservatives have a plan on public services, which is to smash them beyond all recognition."

OP posts:
Thread gallery
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GhostofFrankGrimes · 07/03/2017 21:43

Anti Irish sentiment can be traced back to the infamous Punch magazine cartoons at the time of the famine (1845-49). Thus anti Irish racism in Britain is not exclusive to "the troubles" commencing 1969

BigChocFrenzy · 07/03/2017 21:43

One example of why the govt is happy about the mass distraction of Brexit:

There were 3.9 million children living in poverty in the UK in 2014-15.
That’s 28 % of children, or 8-9 in a classroom of 30

I am one of a tiny minority of kids who grew up very poor, but later had a comfortable life.
Most kids won't have the luck to escape.
All that potential talent for the country wasted.

OP posts:
Peregrina · 07/03/2017 21:44

Red was having a few day's holiday, I think.

Badders123 · 07/03/2017 21:44

Yeah....those pesky black and tans just wanted some fun!!!
They didn't beat and torture people because they were Irish!!

Someone asked about famine houses...yes they still exist.
Mayo and most of the west has many
Very very eerie.

Badders123 · 07/03/2017 21:45

Not that red peregrina! 😁

Mistigri · 07/03/2017 21:47

I don't think redpoll is a leaver so don't panic guys

And this is relevant how exactly? "I'm not racist but" is offensive whoever pulls that sort of shit.

Thegruffalowswife · 07/03/2017 21:47

Wikipedia is often rubbish but here is a bref history ( probably a bit dodgy) there were always conflicts

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_Ireland

Badders123 · 07/03/2017 21:47

Big choc...some of the kids I work with go hungry in the school holidays and some are hungry all the time as they don't qualify for FSM (working poor)
I tried to get a summer food bank up and running at our local church....no interest at all.
It clashed with the jumble sale.....

Badders123 · 07/03/2017 21:49

I'm quite familiar with the history of Ireland thank you.
Having travelled extensively there and, you know, being half Irish myself.....

BigChocFrenzy · 07/03/2017 21:49

There always seems to have been dislike / fear of immigrants, even with the Windrush, bringing veterans who had helped the Uk during WW2.
They weren't threatening jobs either, because there was a labour shortage

"In 1948, Britain was just beginning to recover from the Second World War.
The arrival of the ship prompted some debate in parliament and complaints from some sections of British society worried about immigration.
While there was plenty of work, many of the Windrush pioneers had problems with finding accommodation.
The iconic sign on many bed and breakfast hotels No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs was a product of these early tensions."

http://www.itv.com/news/london/story/2013-06-21/65-years-since-windrush-docked-at-tilbury/

OP posts:
GhostofFrankGrimes · 07/03/2017 21:50

I wasn't aware of Britain's 800 year involvement in Ireland? Hmm

make you proud?

Thegruffalowswife · 07/03/2017 21:52

Yes working poor is a huge problem in our country. It can not be fixed by food banks and state benefits.

Badders123 · 07/03/2017 21:53

Tell that to a hungry 7 year old.....

BigChocFrenzy · 07/03/2017 21:54

Badders Good on you trying to help those poor kids
That's disgraceful that kids are going hungry in what we keep being told is a prosperous country.

OP posts:
GhostofFrankGrimes · 07/03/2017 21:54

Yes working poor is a huge problem in our country. It can not be fixed by food banks and state benefits.

but Brexit induced food price rises will be a real shot in the arm for the poor Hmm

Seamless swich from discussing Ireland there.

Thegruffalowswife · 07/03/2017 21:58

Well according to Wikipedia you guys in Ireland started it!!!!

I reckon that is probably bollocks though (at the risk of being politically incorrect)

HashiAsLarry · 07/03/2017 22:00

I have a couple of ex Army friends who have served at different times during the Troubles. The stories they tell are not pretty on any side and devoid of any nuanced political context too. Very illuminating discussions they were.

Good on you badders

woman12345 · 07/03/2017 22:01

Badders thank you too for this doing this work.

Cromwell. Orange lodge marches still in Liverpool and Glasgow. DUP and their American friends. Hence the above comments.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/mar/07/home-office-tells-jamaican-man-talk-to-family-online-after-removal

^Sophia, also Jamaican, who has been in Yarl’s Wood since October, is being deported on the same flight after a conviction for shoplifting 10 years ago that led to her losing her indefinite leave to remain.

According to a fundraising page set up to help her fight the deportation, she has been in the UK for more than 25 years and has three British children, the youngest of which is 13 and has sickle cell anaemia. She was told she could stay in touch with her children via Skype, the page says.

On Monday night, according to the Unity Centre, Brook House detention centre was put on lockdown when guards donned riot gear and attacked a Jamaican detainee who refused to leave his cell.

“The Unity Centre received several calls from distressed detainees who were coughing uncontrollably and had difficulties speaking, because the guards had opened the roof of the building and turned on the air conditioning at full blast,” the organisation said^.

Sounds like torture in internment centres now.

Redpoll · 07/03/2017 22:01

Many people not on "benefits" still take out more in services than they pay over a lifetime. Childhood & old age being the loss-leaders. So that poster may end up an overall "taker"

As a longtime higher rate taxpayer, no kids, 30 years private health insurance .... I've always thought it right that I and those like me should pay far more than we take, because we have far more available.

Speak for yourself, I have never had anything back- That's speaking as a business owner, employer and long time higher than ever tax payer. I have no inclination whatsoever that I should 'pay more and take less than I put in' -getting something at all would be a start.

Otherwise, what are your plans for the poor, the longterm sick, disabled, unemployed ?
Soylent Green

I'll not grace the quote above with a reply as A) My thoughts would not be PC for discussion
; And B) The true numbers of the above in the UK are hard to ascertain due to the large numbers who claim they are poor,long term sick and are not; As well as the large numbers of unemployed who wish to remain un-employed

Sorry to be brutal but it is fact of the U.K. as it stands.

Badders123 · 07/03/2017 22:04

"You guys in Ireland started it!"
Um....
We aren't in Ireland....

Also, would look into a subscription to a reputable news source. When one quotes Wikipedia one often ends up sounding like a dick.

HTH

Thegruffalowswife · 07/03/2017 22:06
Shock
HashiAsLarry · 07/03/2017 22:06

To be fair to Wikipedia there are some very good articles on there. You just have to check the sources though like everything else

Thegruffalowswife · 07/03/2017 22:07

Shock redpoll!

Badders123 · 07/03/2017 22:08

Red...benefits fraud is less than 2% (the govts own data)
It happens. But really not often.
HR tax paying family here too. Don't begrudge a penny. Because...you know....civilised society and all that!
Interestingly the countries with the best health-care and education pay the highest taxes!
I know!!!!
Baffling...

Thegruffalowswife · 07/03/2017 22:09

I think it would on the whole be very naive to believe that troubles between ireland and england originated in 1969...

I know for a fact that this is rubbish.

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